← Back to sermon library

with the Commonwealth of Israel the general Equity principle still finds us so whatever wisdom we find those things that are appropriate for application New Covenant setting we certainly take those principles and apply that notice in chapter 21 at verse 1 these are the judgments which you shall set before them so concrete applications of the general principles that are given in Exodus chapter 20 in terms of the ten commandments so in chapter 21 we start off with laws concerning servants and then it moves on to laws concerning homicide and bodily injury and then property damage and we left off on that or we finished that in terms of property in chapter 22 at verse verses 16 to 20. so if a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her he shall surely pay the bride price for her to be to be his wife if her father utterly refuses to give her to him he shall pay money according to the bride price of virgins you shall not permit a sorceress to live whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death he who sacrifices to any God except to the Lord only he shall be utterly destroyed you shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him for you are strangers in the land of Egypt you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child if you afflict them in any way and they cry at all to me I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will become hot and I will ask young widows are among you you shall not be like a money lender to them you shall not charge an interest if you if you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge you shall return it to him before the sun goes down for that is his only covering it is His Garment for his skin what will he sleep in and it will be that when he cries to me I will hear for I am gracious you shall not revive God nor curse or ruler of your people you shall not delay to offer the first of your right produce and your juices the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep it shall be with its mother seven days on the eighth day you shall give it to me and you shall eat uh shall be holy man to me you shall not eat me torn by beasts in the field you shall throw it to the dogs amen so as we move through this particular section if you remember the the previous section is what's called casual strain gives a general sort of a situation that would serve the judges in terms of applying it to specific situations so not every particular detail is uh covered but there is enough so that the judges have some code some statutes some command from God on how to deal with individual situations now as we move on in verses 16 and following it's more uh direct there's specific prohibition don't do this or this will happen and so tonight I want to look at the law concerning the seduction of a virgin in verses 16 and 17 and then the three capital offenses indicated in verses 18 to 20. so he condemns witchcraft and idolatry so in the first place let's look at the law concerning the subduction of a virgin in verses 16 and 17. now the position here is intriguing because we move from property issues into these laws miscellaneous laws concerning Society some have certainly included verses 16 and 17 with the previous section on dealing with property because you've got to pay this bride price it does seem like there's some sort of a business transaction in place uh Stewart says these verses though they belong with what precedes may be considered transitional and that they conclude the section on property responsibility and compensation and as well introduce the following section which deals with various laws relating to social responsibility so it's a transition passage it does look behind back and it looks forward so the emphasis as I said are on laws concerning Society in this section that we're dealing with now we'll deal with that right price in just a moment hopefully we'll try and defang it of how you know offensive it may sound to our modern years but in the first place notice the particular issue in 16a if a man entices a virgin but can we compare it as we will in a few minutes to Deuteronomy chapter 22 the woman is compliant the woman is entice the woman is seduced and the woman does comply this is not a case of rape again we're going to compare it to chapter 22 in the book of Deuteronomy which explains expands or amplifies on some of these sexual sins that I think at times give Christians cause for concern and certainly the enemies of Christ ammunition because they misinterpret what's going on in Deuteronomy chapter 22. so the man entices a virgin most likely does it in a manipulative way Matthew Poole says with Persuasions with promise of marriage with allurements or rewards no this is the specific indenture he wants to have sexual relations with her sexual Congress so what happens is that she complies with him she yields to the particular enticement now if that does occur if a man entice is a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her notice what the specific sanction is he shall surely pay the bride price for her to be his wife so if he goes into her she's compliant with that then he should do the right thing and marry her now in verse 17 if her father utterly refuses to give her to him he shall pay money according to the bride price of virgins so the father May refuse the father May resist and that being the case the man violated the woman so the man nevertheless has to pay this particular bride price now there's no price no monetary sort of figure applied to this particular section again if we compare Deuteronomy chapter 22 it's 50 shekels that the man is on the hook for in terms of what he ought to pay now I'm going to quote Stuart again this is a bit of a longer long ish quote but I think it does put in context this whole issue of bride price now before I read this I just want us to consider our modern situation our modern approach to fornication no strings attached whatsoever in fact there's applications that you can put on your phone that say well that seems barbaric having to pay money for a particular woman well it's pretty barbaric when men can go into women today and there's no responsibility whatsoever placed upon either of that so Stuart mentions he says part of the utility of the Bride price was the way it forced a man to make a full and formal arrangement for marriage that properly involved both his interests and those of his right to be as well as the interests of his family and hers the bride price requirement necessarily involved the families in substantial formal negotiations and the price showed that something serious and important was at stake taking a woman to oneself and taking away her virginity were honorable if the proper negotiations had been completed and a proper indication of her worth had been paid to her family and the couple were legally married simply having sexual relations with her with or without her permission devalued her and showed blatant disregard for her worth it also showed that a person or when the premarital sex was consensual that the couple viewed marriage or its Covenant sign sexual intercourse as less than a formal legal lifelong contractual commitment the betrothal slash bride price system was designed to make marriage harder to come by than what could be achieved on whim or quick decision and it elevated marriage accordingly because people instinctively value what is hard and costly to get again we look at passages like these and they are a puzzle to us because they're so contrary or foreign to the way that we operate but as I said a moment's reflection upon the way that persons engage in sexuality today shows us the dignity involved and shows us the responsibility involved with this particular arrangement the families were involved there was sanctions imposed Upon A man for recklessness in terms of his own sexuality there were problems affixed to the woman in terms of her sexuality to be a virgin a an unmarried non-virgin in Israel carried stigma it was a difficult proposition for this particular woman so the law is given in some sense as a preventative measure you need to know what's at stake when you act in a Reckless Behavior when you look back in these laws concerning property remember that negligence is punishable if you are a negligent person you're an irresponsible person within the body politic more often than not you have to pay well the same is true with sexuality and the same is true with reference to the Covenant uh covenantal nature of marriage if you are not prepared to enter into that covenantal Arrangement then you're not prepared to have sexual relations and so this law would hopefully uh function as a preventative maintenance to those that might be engaged in some sort of lawlessness or sexual immorality now turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 22 as I said this amplifies some of the concrete applications of the seventh commandment in terms of Civil Society there's one particular issue that we need to consider because I think it gets misrepresented and there seems to be this contradiction between a betrothed woman and a non-betrobe or a single woman so look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 I'll read beginning in verse 22. the man is found lying with a woman married to a husband then both of them shall die the man that lay with the woman and the woman so you shall put away the evil from Israel that's a case of straightforward adultery notice in verses 23 and 24 this is the seduction of a betrothed woman if a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her then you shall bring them both out to the gate that of that City and you shall Stone them to death with stones the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he humbled his neighbor's wife so you shall put away the evil from among you so this woman is betrothed to another man that's a binding legal contract notice that she's referred to as a wife will she willingly complies with this seduction and she goes willingly with the man so you have a case here of the seduction of a betrothed woman so in a sense it is similar to what you see in the previous verse concerning adultery now notice in verses 25 to 27 this is the rape of a betrothed woman in the countryside so notice in verse 25 now this distinction between out in the countryside and in the city has to do with the ability to alert persons as to what is going on if you're out in the countryside and you scream it's quite possible nobody's going to hear you whereas if you are in the city and you don't scream then that shows complicitness on your part if you're in the city and you don't scream it's probably because you have gone willingly with him that's why it presses that it points that out in verse 24. notice then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that City and you shall Stone them to death with stones the young woman noticed because she did not cry out in the city what's the implica Nation she was being raped she should have cried out in the city because in the city there would be people that would hear her and come to a rescue so she is complicit she goes along with this particular man but then again the contrast in verse 25 points to rape if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside and the man forces her and lies with her that is necessary to establish rape Force the uh this emphasis on Force then only the man who lay with her shall die but you shall do nothing to the young woman there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him even so is this matter for he found her in the countryside and the betrothed young woman cried out but there was no one to save her see the distinction there the seduction of a betrothed woman in verses 23 to 24 she could have cried out got assistance but she didn't that underscores that she was complicit and she went with this man who seduced her now in terms of the rape this woman was out in the countryside she cried out there was nobody to help her as well we have the emphasis upon the force that was utilized to make sure that this fellow got his way now the next section verses 28 and 29 correspond to the passage in Exodus so what we have in verses 28 and 29 is a corresponding situation with what we have in Exodus chapter 22 at verses 16 and 17. notice if a man finds a young woman who is a virgin who is not betrothed so the modern commentators are rather the modern God haters say well if you rape a betrothed woman you're liable to be executed but if you rape a virgin a non-betrod woman then you're not liable to be executed that's a bit of a problem in biblical ethics I would suggest well you know well I can rape somebody and all I have to do is pay the bride price and I'm okay so some take this specifically uh verses 25 to 27 and they see a contradiction or they see a reflect a relaxing in verses 28 to 29 you're really valuable if you're betrothed you're not so valuable if you're not betrothed so let's look at verse 28 if a young if a man finds a young woman who is a virgin who is not betrothed and he seizes her and lies with her now the Caesar's there I think the NIV translates it as forces it's not forces it's a different verse verb altogether the seas in our minds suggest some sort of force imposed upon her but that's not what's happening it corresponds to what's going on in Exodus 22. this girl com is complicit because notice what it says he seizes her and lies with her and they are found out then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father 50 shekels of silver and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days it's dealing with the same sort of a situation A man seduces a woman and she is complicit and goes along with him just like we have in Exodus 22 16 and 17. if your Bible translation has forces in verse 28 that will give rise to what appears to be a contradiction so if you're a betrothed woman you're protected under the law up to and including capital punishment on the part of the on the part of the rapist if you're not betrothed well it doesn't matter because all he has to do is pay the bride price you see how that gets in the mind of the Pagan or the Heathen and he thinks he has a really good gaze to make you look like a or a fool because your Bible sustains uh execution for somebody that's betrothed but it doesn't sustain that with reference to somebody who's not betrothed but verses 28 and 29 invisible envisages a woman that is compliant just like we have in Exodus chapter 22 verses 16 and 17. and then this section ends on Affinity notice in verse 30 a man shall not take his father's wife nor uncover his father's bed it's just like in uh just like incest so incest is by Blood and dffinity is by marriage our confession of Faith speaks to both of these things in chapter 24 paragraph four it says marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity that has to do with blood you're not supposed to marry be a close first cousin or or closer um and then I'm pretty sure it's first cousin and well I know it's closer but first cousin I think is you know you can't and then beyond that I don't know I'd give second or third cousin you know just to make sure there's some some wiggle room in there but it says uh marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or Affinity so Affinity is when we are brought into a relation by marriage so in First Corinthians 5 for instance when Paul upgrades the church in Corinth because a man had his father's wife that's the problem of affinity it's his father's wife probably not his mother wherein he's you know connected to her by Blood but he is connected to her by affinity and so marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or Affinity forbidden in the word no or can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties so as those persons may live together as man and wife so going back to Exodus chapter 22 verses 16 and 17 corresponds to what you have in Deuteronomy 22 at verses 28 and 29 the problem is the seduction of a virgin who complies with the Seducer so obviously In this passage before us and exodus he has to pay the bride price if in fact he does marry her the stipulation and in Deuteronomy 22 is that he can never divorce her he can never write her a certificate of divorce there are some people that teach that there is never divorce in the Bible I'm not sure what Bible they're reading because the Bible does say there is divorce in Deuteronomy 24 we see a permission given or the the bill of divorcement written and the specifications in evolved you get to the religious reformers the time of Ezra and Nehemiah they're actually commanded to divorce their Pagan wives and to put them away so the Bible does authorize divorce it doesn't authorize it for any old reason it's only for pornea or sexual immorality and for desertion I would include spousal abuse under desertion if somebody is beating their spouse they have deserted them they're not functioning the way Christ is with reference to his church but with reference to this man if he does seduce her if she is can bless that if the father refuses her to be married to him then he has to pay the bride price either way he has to pay the bride price but he must always stay or remain married to her so that's the law concerning the seduction of a virgin noticed secondly the three capital offenses the first has to do with witchcraft or sorcery you shall not permit a sorceress to live now it's in the feminine there there you shall not permit a witch or a sorceress to live typically that's a woman the law certainly applies to what we would call a warlock or a male witch or a or a male sorcerer now in terms of the condemnation of Witchcraft or sorcery in the Bible I think perhaps one of the clearest passages is Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. you can you can turn there and we're going to Deuteronomy because it's a bit more Amplified in terms of the the details and I think it helps us to see or understand what's going on better in Exodus chapter 22. so Deuteronomy chapter 18 contains a lot of information it deals with the priest and the prophet in Israel the priest and the prophet in Israel in the first section is the provision for priests so in chapter 18 verses 1 to 8 it talks about the provision that is to be made for the priests now the priest represented uh the people to God so the priest would go on behalf of the people to God the prophet comes on behalf of God to the people for those who've been somewhat familiar with military service there's a a rank in the military called the first sergeant the first sergeant functions kind of as a prophet and as a priest he represents the commander to the Troops and he represents the troops to the commander and that's what a prophet and a priest does Prophet comes on behalf of God to declare the word of God to the people the priest goes on behalf of the people to God to let their needs be known to intercede on their behalf to make intercession so the priests or the priesthood was a vital component in Israel's cult or religious uh exercise and so you needed to provide for the Levites the next section deals with the prohibition of sorcery the prohibition of sorcering what's the emphasis in Deuteronomy 18. Israel is not to be governed or Israel is not to conduct herself the way the Pagan Nations around them did you're governed by the law of God you're governed by the word of God you've got priests that function in terms of sacrifice and cult they appear in the presence of God for you in terms of hearing from Beyond that comes from God through the prophet so notice in 1809 when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you you shall not learn to follow the Abominations of those Nations there shall not be found among you anyone who makes a son or his daughter pass through the fire or one who practices witchcraft or a soothsayer or want to interprets Omens or a sorcerer or one who conjures spells or a medium or or a spirit test or one who calls up the dead for all who do these things are an Abomination to the Lord and because of these Abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you you shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you will dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners but as for you the Lord your God has not appointed such for you now incidentally as we move through the law code you'll see why the Canaanites were dispossessed from the land again God haters pagans heathens atheists agnostics will take the Old Testament and say wow look at that God the Yahweh of Israel commands the children of Israel to go in and commit genocide amongst the Canaanite peoples that's just horrific no it was an act of judgment it was an act of chastening when the Canaanites engaged in soothsaying and Witchcraft and sexual perversion and the sorts of things that they engaged in God used not so righteous Israel as the means of judgment for the less than righteous Canaanites now what happens when Israel starts to ate the conduct of the Canaanites he raises up Assyria to drive out the northern kingdom he raises up Babylonia or Babylon to drive out the southern Kingdom he's not capricious he's not arbitrary you go into his land and you pervert it with your godlessness he's going to judge you but back to the particular text the nation of Israel was not to call upon these things or look for a word from Beyond via the means that the the pagans around them use they were a nation governed directly by God and the prophetic word was the means by which he would communicate to them now verses 15 to 19 underscore the promise of a prophet to come this is the passage that does tell us that Christ is going to come verse 15 the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst from your brethren him you shall hear according to all you desired of the Lord your God and Horeb remember on the Mount of transfiguration when Christ is transfigured before the the disciples and and you hear the sound of the Father the voice of the father this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and then what does he say hear him well what's the purpose it is to emphasize that he is the prophet of Deuteronomy 18. him you shall hear according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly saying let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God nor let me see this great fire anymore lest I die and the Lord said to me what they have spoken is good I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their Brethren and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him and it shall be that whoever will not hear my words which he speaks in my name I will require it of him and then the passage ends with the penalty for the false prophet notice in verse 20 but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the the name of other gods that Prophet shall die and if you say in your heart how shall we know the word which the Lord is not spoken when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the thing does not happen or come to pass that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken the prophet has spoken it presumptuously you shall not be afraid of him so you have the priest and the prophet in Israel the people of God were to listen to the prophet of God they were not supposed to conjure up dead Spirits they were not supposed to engage in the sorts of conduct that is condemned here you have that instance in first Samuel chapter 28 when Saul approaches the witch at Endor because she wants to talk to Samuel and one commentator on first Samuel David samura he says the very need for such prohibitions is an indication that the problem of necromancy that's a communication with the dead and of religious practices related to the dead was widespread in ancient Canaan the the passage before us Deuteronomy autonomy 18 indicates that same thing you're going in to this land they've got other gods they've got other means they've got other ways that they seek for the word from their gods you're not supposed to use that you're supposed to stay far away from that Dale Ralph Davis I think helpfully points out he says we must remember that scripture describes such practices not as futile but as Pagan when you look at the the witch at Endor situation I don't think that was Samuel there you know commentators are divided Bible scholars teachers they're divided it was Samuel others say it wasn't Samuel but there there was something I don't think it was Samuel but it was somebody it was something and and so what David says here is right he says we must remember that scripture describes such practices not as futile but as Pagan Yahweh forbids Israel to use these means not because they do not work but but because they are wicked right there's you know the the the attempts by people you know the dabble in the occult that stuff is forbidden by that's an Abomination again it's not well you know it's useless it doesn't work that's not the argument from scripture the argument from scripture is not don't do it because it's futile and it doesn't work the argument is from scripture is it's an Abomination it is a rejection of the living and true God so of course the Old Testament condemns sorcery it condemns witchcraft the New Testament does as well remember Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8 he was Simon the Magician who wanted to purchase the gift of being able to convey the Holy Spirit on Persons Acts chapter 19 what was one of the bestetting sins of the city of Ephesus before Paul came and preached and they got saved they were into the Black Arts they were in to occultism they were into black magic and then in the Book of Revelations Revelation at 21 1 and in chapter 22 you see a condemnation of sorcery interestingly it's where we get the word pharmacies so drugs were used in combination or in concert with sorcery and Witchcraft sort of practices so again the word of God condemns it it's a pagan Heathen Wicked and abominable practice so back in our passage in Exodus chapter 22 again it's very cut and dry you shall not permit a sorceress to live in other words this is a capital offense and you must put this person to death in the next instance you have the condemnation of bestiality this is a very unsavory passage of scripture but nevertheless we need to deal with it notice in verse 19 whoever lies with an animal and that of course means sexually to engage in copulation whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death now intriguingly this isn't the only place that the Bible addresses this particular subject I remember many years ago we pray for the Hamiltons we we love the Hamiltons and they're active in terms of Myanmar and China well before they were in China Andy was a pastor actually way back when he played professional NFL football he was on the Kansas City Chiefs uh and then he was a pastor in Bossier City Louisiana and somewhere in his 20 years there he preached a series of sermons on you know sexual Fidelity and essential age really good messages mid 90s not sure if they're available anywhere on the internet but I remember specifically when he got to bestiality he said you know what should cause us as as image bearers of the Living God to hang our heads in shame that God even has to address that practice that he has to even speak to that practice I think that that John Gill hits that nail on the head he says this is a crime so detachable and abominable so shocking and dishonorable to human nature that one would think it could never be committed by any of the human species and that there was no occasion for making a law against it but such is the depravity and Corruption of mankind that Divine wisdom saw it necessary and to to deter from it made it death it was a capital offense and you know for us today to say well you know that was that it's now Brethren I mean it's there's an alarming amount of stories that come up from time to time about this particular crime about this particular particular offense I think I've told you before that at least he was I don't know if he's still alive he's still functioning I think he still is his name is Peter Singer he is the you know the professor of bioethics I think at Princeton University and I remember several years ago he made the made the news because he was advocating that that bestiality was perfectly acceptable he said except with chickens which leads one to believe for think why would he say that I mean who who would say such a thing without some sort of experiential knowledge but but as far as he was concerned bestiality was appropriate it was it was it was okay so so this isn't so outlandish and and again it's not confined here it's in Leviticus 18. at verse 23 it's in uh Leviticus 20. at verse 15 and 16 and then specifically turned to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 27. it's the curses the blessings and the curses in Deuteronomy 27-28 that's how you know this book comes to an ad now there's obviously chapters after 28 but but the sort of Apex or Pinnacle of covenantal sort of arrangement ends with blessings and cursings there's blessings if you obey the law and there's cursings if you disobey the law so if you look specifically at the curses in Deuteronomy 27 notice in verse 21 cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal now when we look at Deuteronomy specifically we look at the children of Israel on the plains of Moab poised to enter into Canaan now as you can probably surmise with the warnings in Deuteronomy 18 and Leviticus specifically 18 19 and 20. the Canaanites had their their issues they were they were a debauched people in fact one commentator says the degree of sexual perversion in Canaanite culture was such that bestiality was fairly commonplace hittite laws for example even permitted cohabitation with certain animals now again certain animals were forbidden but certain animals were permitted so they didn't have a blanket Universal prohibition against bestiality in the hittite law code so so it wasn't you know perhaps as uncommon as one might think in the land of Canaan and as Western Civilization continues its Swift decline I think we're saying you know sexual perversion really really abounding in ways that perhaps we never thought we would see so if this particular sin or crime becomes even more pronounced and even more protected and regulated it seems the logical step with kind of the directions we're going so again we ought to pray that there would be Godly leaders or at least leaders that aren't so debauched as to think that it's okay to mutilate children or to lay with animals one commentator commenting on Deuteronomy 27 21 I think brings out why it was wrong now you know the very supposition that it might not be wrong is obviously foolish but he points out some things here he says it was so serious because it involved Man created in God's image having intercourse with animals which were a lower order of creation it was therefore a total rejection of God's purposes in creation I think we need to appreciate that argument from creation Now there's obvious arguments from Redemption that we can make to combat certain sins and crimes but we ought not to jettison the reality that God in the created order through the light of Nature has revealed things that are either right or wrong and creation is about order it's about uh structure it's about consistency it's about those things that reflect the goodness of God so when we invert that created order that's demonic that's satanic you see that sort of in the fall narrative God makes Adam to rule over not in a wicked vicious way his wife to lead love and you know rule over his wife and they together are to exercise dominion over the animals what happens when the when the fall comes it inverts that whole created order now you've got the animal talking to the woman who's passing the fruit to her husband so it's an inversion of God's created intention right at the outset or right at the entrance of the Fall he goes on to say moreover it was a pagan practice in which people thought they could attain Union with the deities symbolized by the animal this would help to explain its presence in the book of the Covenant alongside prohibition of sacrifice to any Pagan God so back to our text in chapter 22 that's the next passage so you've got a Prohibition against sorcery Verse 18 a Prohibition against bestiality verse 19 and then a Prohibition in verse 20 concerning idolatry all three of these are capital offenses all three of them are a direct assault upon the covenantal order that God established at Sinai and so this is to to invert it is to act in contrast to what God had decreed so notice in verse 20 he who sacrifices that's Syndicate that's a part for the whole it has to do with worship the the the the meaning here is he who worships any God uh he who sacrifices to any God except to the Lord only he shall be utterly destroyed so the law speaks to the worship of a false god the law forbids idolatry when you look at the the first commandment you shall have no other gods before me you shall have no other gods another translation is besides me so you're not to put anything before God but you're also not to add anything to God and when you survey the Old Testament very often the issue with Israel was not an absolute repudiation of Yahweh it was more of Yahweh does this but we need these other gods to sort of help us in that in other words it's called syncretism so at Mount Carmel when Elijah the prophet lays down his challenge the the god contest if God Yahweh is God then worship him if Baal is God then worship him more than likely they weren't repudiating Yahweh they were trying to add Baal to Yahweh they weren't just saying you know there's no God except for ashrath there's no God except for moloch no there were probably those instances to be sure but first our second Kings chapter 17. you can turn there you see the synchronous syncretism uh very clearly on display so in second Kings chapter 17 this is the fall of the northern Empire or a northern kingdom rather remember Israel at the time of uh uh jeroboam and rehoboam in First Kings chapter 12 the kingdom split you had the ten Northern tribes of Israel then the two Southern tribes of Judah Second Kings records the fall of the north and second Kings 17 and the fall of the south in Second Kings 24. so in Second Kings 17 notice in verse 24. your child if you're using the new King James it says Assyria resettles Samaria so when the Assyrians would go in and you know conquer a people they had kind of an interesting way that they would go about that they would dispossess the land and they would try to keep people off kilter they would take mountain people and put them on the sea they'd take sea people and put them in the mountains they would do that to weaken the the conquered forces so that they could muster and you know fight back and and ultimately destroy so in Samaria which was the capital of the northern kingdom there were probably there were Israelites left there but a large amount of them were taken away and then other conquered peoples are put in that particular region so that's the setting so notice in verse 24 then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon kutha Ava hamath and from Sapphire sephard and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities and it was so at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear the lord and before we continue on that you've probably seen passages that talk about Hooks and noses that would be the Assyrians another way that they would take these conquered peoples that they would you know hook their noses and you know put them on a Stringer like fish and then they would put them in these various people uh various places so again it was probably still Israel Israelites living there we see that in the tax but they bring these conquered peoples and they're a good good bit of the Israelites were taken away to other places so so it says in verse 20 five it was still at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear Yahweh therefore Yahweh sent Lions among them which killed some of them so they spoke to the king of Assyria saying the Nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the god of the land therefore he has sent Lions among them and indeed they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the god of the land then the king of Assyria commanded saying send there one of the priests whom you brought from there let him go and dwell there and let him teach them the rituals of the god of the land then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear Yahweh however Every Nation continue to make gods of its own and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made every nation in the cities where they dwelt the men of Babylon made sukov benoth the men of couth made nergal the men of hamath made Ashima and the avites made nibhas and tartak and the sapphire vites burned their children in fire to to a dremelak and a hamelak the gods of Safar van so they feared the Lord and from every class they appointed for themselves Priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places the author here expects you to get that he's being ironic he wants you to understand he is not condoning this practice of marrying your God with Yahweh and saying that they fear in the Lord this is dripping with sarcasm because we know that God does not share his Allegiance with anybody or his glory with anybody now this is a case of subtle peoples taking their gods and marrying them with Yahweh the point is is that Israel did the same thing Israel looked to ashra Israel looked to bail Israel looked to Molech not in their absolute repudiation of Yahweh but as helpers to try to get stuff that they thought would happen so verse 33 they feared the Lord yet serve their own Gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away to this day they continue practicing their former rituals they do not fear the lord that nor do they follow their statutes now he's telling him when they try to marry these things it's not not genuine fear of God so these are settled peoples marrying their God or using their God along with Yahweh for the express purpose to get the Lions out of the land okay this is utilitarianism the point is is that Israel herself does this turn to the prophet Zephaniah Zephaniah chapter 1. the prophet announces why God's judgment is coming upon the nation and in Zephaniah chapter 1 specifically in verse 4. we see this we'll back up for just a moment to to verse two I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land says the Lord I will consume man and Beast I will consume the birds of the heavens the fish of the Sea and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked I will cut off man from the face of the land says the Lord I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place the names of the idolatrous priests with the Pagan priests those who worship the host of Heaven on the housetops those who worship and swear Oaths by the Lord but who also swear by milkom those who have turned back from following the Lord and have not sought the Lord nor inquired of him so again there would have been in Old Covenant Israel perhaps those who repudiated the existence of Yahweh oh there is no Yahweh there is no true and living God but most likely the majority it would have been syncretism they wanted Yahweh but they want what these lesser deities would have to offer and I think Stewart makes the observation well he says syncretism the merging and blending of religious beliefs was so common in the ancient world as to be virtually ubiquitous that means everywhere present a typical ancient person would not deny that Yahweh existed but might well deny that he was the only God or indeed that he was anything other than Israel's National God I.E one God among the many gods of many nations Israel's Temptation was to follow this line of reasoning so they get into Canaan and they're you know the the Canaanites that they didn't dispossess remember they were told to dispossess that why do you think God said dispossess that because if you don't dispossess them you're going to be going to bail services with them you're going to be bowing to Baal praying for rain just the way your Pagan neighbors are doing so he says Israel's Temptation was to follow this line of reasoning and to appreciate Yahweh as their Nash National God their National deliver and Defender but to find and bail in ashra the Divine expertise for crop and animal fertility in Dagon the expertise for grain abundance that was the particularity or the peculiarity of those Gods so Bale and ashra had to do with fertility in terms of crops Dagon grain abundance when when Samson destroys the grain fields that is a religious commentary as much as it is a political commentary upon the the Philistines when he burns the grain he's saying that Dagon the grain God can't even do his job and protect your food he goes on to say in molak the Divine expertise for family Prosperity I have to you know study that one further because as far as I know moloch was only good for child sacrifice so I don't know why they would go for family Prosperity he goes on to say it can even be said that what the Israelites were tempted to do when they entered into idolatry was never to reject Yahweh outright but simply to reject his exclusivity so again probably there were those probably a small minority did reject him outright but the vast majority of the condemnation of idolatry in the old Covenant is yes we you know we serve Yahweh but we like these other gods because they provide immediate relief for their areas of particular emphasis says and then in terms of the application of this I don't want to keep us much longer but Deuteronomy chapter 13. Deuteronomy 13 you can turn there we won't get into the the details I'll just give you the sort of an overview of what's going on in Deuteronomy 13. but with reference to sort of an amplified version or a you know a three-fold illustration of execution relative to the violation of this particular principle chapter 13 one to five if a false prophet arises and solicits you to commit apostasy you are to kill him verses 6 to 11 if you are tempted by friends or family even the wife of your Bosa to engage in apostasy that person is guilty of a capital offense and then verses 12 to 18 deals with a public display of revolution in a particular City now there's a religious aspect obviously in having other gods before God but there was also a political aspect involved as well what are we looking at in terms of the old Covenant law code yes it's a religious document yes it specifies the terms of worship in terms of Israel's God God but it's a civil law code it functions as a constitution what happens when somebody rejects the the ultimate Authority in the Civil polity we call that treason and so typically in anybody politic Traders are executed they're put to death craigie makes the observation he says the legal penalties noted in this chapter chapter 13 may seem at first sight to be excessively harsh but the reason for the severity lies in the nature of the crime the continued existence of the Covenant Community depended literally upon allegiance to the lord of the Covenant I suggest that's exactly what we see there in Exodus 22 the three capital offenses that are indicated are gross exaggerated forms of complete Rebellion against the final authority of God Almighty how do you meet that Rebellion you execute them you put them to death there's no remediation for that there's no fixing them if you're going to engage in witchcraft if you're going to engage in bestiality if you're going to sacrifice to another God you have breached the Covenant in such a way that there's no remedy for you you must be executed in terms of the body politic he says thus the crime is considered not simply in light of the actions of the perpetrator but in light of the effect of the crime on the welfare of the whole people of Israel of all potential crimes in ancient Israel the one described in this chapter was the most dangerous in terms of its broader ramifications to attempt deliberately to undermine allegiance to God was the worst form of subversive activity in that it eroded the Constitutional basis of the potential Nation Israel in its implications the crime would be equivalent to treason or Espionage in time of War so going back to and concluding our study in Exodus chapter 22 these three particular offenses that are capital in nature are a threat not just to the religious order but to the Civil order as a whole if you are a sorceress or a sorcerer or you engage in bestiality or you sacrifice to another God the just Judgment of God most high is execution for your crimes yes it's sin yes you shouldn't engage in that but it's also an outward Act of criminal activity and the the the sanction appended to it is capital punishment so in conclusion I think verses 16 and 17 paradoxically teach us the Dignity of marriage marriage is to be taken seriously fornication is condemned sex outside of marriage is not permissible there's often that caricature that Christians are anti-sex Christians are not anti-sex God gave sex but it's to be utilized in the Covenant boundaries of marriage if it is utilized outside of those Covenant boundaries then it is a sin and God says don't do it so everywhere we see that marriage is good that sexual relations within marriage is good and that if you violate that there is penalty attached as well the particular wretchedness of the three capital offenses we don't need to rehearse them again and then the maintenance of the covenantal order so as you look at this particular section you're going to see its relationships in terms of God Society God Society what's the emphasis if we reject God if we reject the first table of the law the second table is probably of no concern to us whatsoever when you move through the prophets you see that the prophets condemn the children of Israel oftentimes in terms of second table obligation and the reason why they're engaged in second table and fraction or transgression is because they've abandoned their first table obligation to the living and true God you don't have one without without the other if we disregard the Living God we're going to disregard men but if we love our neighbor as ourself and we function responsibly in terms of the body politic that is a manifestation or demonstration that things are most likely right in terms of our relationship to the true and living God so you see those emphases here in the law code love to man love to God love to God in order to provide love for man well I'll close in a word of prayer Our Father in heaven we thank you for your word we thank you for its Clarity on these matters of of capital offense we thank you as well for the consistency that we find in terms of the the issue of marriage and and all of the things that you stipulate concerning that help us to think wisely and biblically in terms of application of these truths in our own hearts and lives and with reference to church life and this New Covenant era we know it's not a direct one-to-one correlation but there is certainly General equity and wisdom that the church needs to navigate according to thank you for this time we bless you for your goodness and for your word and we praise you through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen